🌈 Blend & filters

Even the same preset looks totally different when you change how it stacks (blend) and its color grading (filter) 🌈 The two big knobs for the look.

The difference to keep in mind 👇

Blend = pick one (switches how things stack)
Filter = stack several (adds up color grading)

🎨 Blend = how visuals "stack"

Sets how the visuals on screen mix together. PC = ↑ / Mobile = swipe up ☝️ cycles through them (always exactly one active).

Comparison of checker-wave and fire-wall stacked with lighten, normal, difference, exclusion, color-dodge, thru, trail, and auto blend modes — The same two presets (checker-wave + fire-wall) stack differently when you change only the blend mode.

Mode	Look
lighten (default)	Dark parts drop out, bright parts stay. The VJ staple, rarely fails ✨
difference	Colors invert against each other — psychedelic 🌀
exclusion	A softer version of difference
color-dodge	Bright parts glow hard and white 🔆
normal	Just stacks on top
thru	Background goes transparent, so what's below shows through
trail	Barely clears the background, so a trail / afterimage stays 👻
auto	Auto-cycles the flashy ones 🎲

💡 Lost? Back to lighten — it's basically a reset. Feeling bold? Try difference / dodge / trail.

✨ Filter = color grading

Grades the whole image's color. PC = ↓ / Mobile = swipe down 👇 cycles them. And you can stack several 🎛️

Comparison of neon-grid-city with OFF, invert, hue-rotate, saturate, brightness, contrast, sepia, and grayscale filters — The same preset (neon-grid-city) with only the filter changed.

Filter	Effect
invert	Invert colors
hue-rotate	Colors shift (reds go blueish, and so on)
saturate	More saturation (vivid)
brightness	Brighter
contrast	More contrast
sepia	Sepia (retro)
grayscale	Black & white

The trick: you can stack them. Combine invert + hue-rotate and such for your own look
Selecting the same filter again turns it off (it's a toggle). Lost? Press them all again to clear back to off

🎬 One combo to try first

Start with color-dodge + invert. It quickly gives you glow plus the punch of inverted color, so it makes the "blend × filter" idea obvious.

After that, don't memorize recipes. Look at the image, try combinations, and find what feels good for the preset you are using. Different presets like different pairings.

💡 Blend (how it stacks) × filter (color) multiply out to more looks than there are presets 🌈

🔗 Related

Add layers to blend → 🎨 Presets
Mix different looks between A/B → 🎱 Deck A/B
Blend photos and logos → 🖼️ Images
Process video footage → 🎬 Video
Switch modes from a knob → 🎹 MIDI

Next: 🛠️ Images →